A good MMO will be designed for a specific market, with a very clear explanation (supported by proof) of why it is different.

This links to my current thoughts on Tera. The combat is very, very good – questing is a real joy because of that. As I’ve stated in my posts on Tera combat is such a big part of MMORPG gameplay that doing combat well is important.

But there is the problem of end-game. Tera has some dungeons and raids as you would expect, plus there is the Nexus as a scheduled large group event. The problem lies in the very transparent gear-grind or more accurately enchanting of gear grind that lies at the core of the current end-game. Raising the enchant level on gear to the desired +12 level involves sacrificing lots of expensive loot, in a similar manner to the random-number-tastic Mystic Forge in Guild Wars 2.

In a sense this is irrelevant to me as I’m not planning on raiding in Tera so I won’t need +9 gear let alone +12. This lack of depth to end-game isn’t an issue for me as I play through to the level cap but it certainly won’t encourage me to stay longer-term, which is a real shame because what the game does well (i.e. combat), it does *really* well.